The wildly popular “Duck Dynasty” TV family is “serious” about leaving the network that booted its patriarch — prompting a situation stickier than a Louisiana swamp for host channel A&E.
“If the network backs down and they bring [father figure] Phil back, they look weak. If they stand their ground, the family probably won’t move forward and A&E loses their highest-rated show,” an insider told E! on Friday.
“No one can really imagine the show going forward without Phil. It would be too weird,” the source added.
A source close to the family said the clan’s top priority is “not abandoning” Phil Robertson, who was placed on suspension for comparing homosexuality to bestiality in a magazine interview published earlier this week.
“They’re an extremely tight-knit family, and they’re not going to let this get in the way,” the family source told E! “[Phil] is the reason for their success — they’re not going to abandon him,” he said.
It’s unclear whether the family will return to the network for a fifth season, the source said. The A&E network was blasted with death threats from fans angered by its decision to remove Robertson, according to Deadline.com.
The threats frightened network honchos so much, the channel beefed up security at its headquarters on 45th Street in Manhattan.
The Robertson family earns $1.4 million per season from A&E, in addition to many more millions from selling duck calls and other merchandise.
The controversy was the talk of late-night TV on Thursday.
“Daily Show” comedian Jon Stewart defended the star.
“I think what the guy said is ignorant, but I also have an inclination to support a world where saying ignorant s–t on television doesn’t get you kicked off that medium,” Stewart said on Thursday.
Robertson made crude comments about gay men in a GQ magazine interview published earlier this week.
“It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me . . . But, hey, sin, it’s not logical,” Robertson, 67, told the mag.
“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there . . . Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”